Late coach leaves unique impression

Jim Hathaway calls them "Revisisms," and he has a bunch of them. One of his favorites makes you wish someone had uploaded it to YouTube, though you can still picture it vividly in your mind.

Revis Conrad, the boys basketball coach at Kecoughtan from 1983-99, was big on his players taking a charge. And all night long, he was on the referee's case about not getting the call. So finally, he decided to demonstrate.

Right in front of his bench, Conrad crashed to the floor and landed flat on his back.

"This," he screamed to the ref, "is a charge!"

"Get up, Revis," the ref shot back. "You look like a beached whale."

Chances are, the ref appreciated Conrad's humor. And chances are, they were friends. Revis Conrad, who died Sunday at 66, had plenty of friends.

"He was one of those guys who would do anything for you," said former Warriors athletic director Leonard Thomas, who came to Kecoughtan the same year Conrad did — 1970. "He was just so likable."

There's another word people often associate with Conrad.

"He was a unique guy," Hathaway said. "One of the most unique guys you'd ever meet. There's only one Revis. How many people do you know named Revis?"

Actually, he was born Madison Revis Conrad — Madison was his father's first name; Revis was his mother's last name. He grew up in Lexington, N.C., and graduated from Atlantic Christian College in 1966. Four years later, he came to Kecoughtan as a history teacher and assistant football coach.

Curt Newsome, Virginia Tech's offensive line coach, has an interesting perspective. Conrad was his position coach during his sophomore year at Kecoughtan. And when Newsome became the Warriors' head coach from 1987-97, Conrad served on his staff.

"I thought the world of him," Newsome said. "He was so great with the kids. I never heard Coach Conrad say anything negative about anybody. He was always a very positive person. He's one of the reasons I got into coaching."

Conrad also was an assistant to Hathaway's boys basketball team until taking over as head coach in 1983. The Warriors went 178-193 in his 16 years. One of his best seasons came in 1994-95, when Kecoughtan went 23-7 and finished as Group AAA runner-up.

Only 56 at the time, Conrad retired following the 1998-99 season, citing health issues. He was a diabetic and had heart problems. But he left quite an impression on his former athletes and students.

"Everyone knew him," said Dawn Conrad Bustamante, his oldest daughter. "I remember once we were walking on the beach in Nags Head. All of a sudden, this guy comes running out of the water yelling, 'Coach Conrad!'

"He told me he always feels bad because he never remembered their names. And I said to him, 'Dad, do you know how many people you coached over the years?' But he never understood his own worth. He was so humble."

Dawn also described her father as calming. So calming, in fact, she asked him to be in the delivery room when both of her children were born.

Jenny Conrad remembers her father as honest. "Actually," she said with a laugh, "brutally honest."

And Shannon Conrad, the oldest, credits his father with sticking to his convictions. Before coming to Kecoughtan, Revis worked at a private school in North Carolina that Shannon said had some racist philosophies.

"He walked away from that job because he believed what he believed," he said.

Conrad is survived by two other children: Annie Conrad and Danny Conrad.

Hathaway, whom the Conrad children have known as "Uncle Jim" over the years, is one of several former Kecoughtan coaches who occasionally gather at Chatfield's on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard to talk about the old times. Conrad's declining health had prevented him from attending, but he was still part of the conversation.

Another of Hathaway's favorite stories involved Conrad painting a ceiling. He was having a problem with paint dripping onto his bushy head of hair, so he solved it by putting a grocery bag on his head — with holes cut out for the eyes.

"No one else on the planet would have thought of that," Hathaway said. "Revis was one of a kind."